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Asian auto makers sharply lifted their USA market share last month due to a trend towards smaller vehicles under the cash-for-clunkers scheme and consumers’ continuing concern about the health of General Motors and Chrysler. Toyota reported a 6.4% sales increase from a year earlier, bringing it within 21,000 vehicles of GM, which has held the # 1 spot for decades. The cash-for-clunkers scheme pushed GM’s sales up by 30% from July, but they remained a 5th lower than August 2008. Among other Asian auto makers, Honda’s sales reached an August record, while Hyundai reported a 47% surge and Subaru posted its best month ever. Read more

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Yesterday General Motors revealed that its Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid car would boast fuel consumption of 230 miles per gallon in city driving making it far more efficient than existing environmentally friendly cars. Fritz Henderson, GM’s chief executive, provided the estimate as part of a drive to burnish the car maker’s image and win back customers since its emergence from a court-supervised restructuring early last month. The Volt, due to go into production in late 2010, will be powered mainly by a battery pack with a 40-mile range. A small internal combustion engine will extend the range by recharging the battery while the car is in motion. The 230 mpg fuel-consumption figure is based on draft guidelines being developed by the US Environmental Protection Agency. Toyota’s Prius hatch-back, the top-selling hybrid, carries a fuel-economy rating of 48 mpg.

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This is what happened last week…

Last Tuesday began what the world community views as a major event in US history, the inauguration of Barack H. Obama as its 44th President and its 1st Black American President.
Some of President Obama’s executive orders on his 1st day in office:

1. A freeze on salaries for White House staff earning $100,000 or more, about 100 people in all.

2. New Freedom of Information Act rules, making it harder to keep the workings of government secret.

3. Tighter ethics rules governing when administration officials can work on issues on which they previously lobbied governmental agencies, and banning them from lobbying the Obama administration after leaving government service.

The week in the markets, however, continued to be bathed in the glow of uncertainty within the financial sector and coupled with Qs about the timing of the economic recovery.
Couple that with headlines announcing that China’s Y 2008 Q 4 GDP contracted from 9% to 6.8%, the UK reporting a GDP decline of 1.5%, the largest since 1980, US housing starts fell to their lowest level on record, and initial jobless claims returned to Christmas levels, matching the 26 yr. high of 589,000 set in December 2008.
Though Microsoft disappointed, IBM and AAPL rang the bell with GOOG beating too, and coming in better than expected.
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